Thursday, 5 October 2017

“[...] But now that self-contained bullshit refinery has reached its logical end-state. It has fulfilled its critical role in building a racist, paranoid political base that is completely impervious to reason and fully-reprogrammable by demagogues like Limbaugh and Hannity and Trump and a political party leadership which is only interested in gutting government and eliminating taxes on behalf of the plutocrats who foot the bill for this abomination. Which means relentlessly pandering to that base. Which, in turn, means pandering to the whims of Limbaugh and Hannity and Trump.
Which, you longtime readers might remember, is an outcome which Mr. David Brooks once swore was impossible, and mocked Liberals for even suggesting such as thing as deranged:
[…] His article from February 5, 2001, in the Weekly Standard:
‘What on earth has gotten into the liberals and the media? Perhaps affected by some sort of post-Palm Beach stress disorder, reporters and activists on the left have depicted George W. Bush as the leader of some sort of arch-conservative jihad. They've portrayed his tax plan as dangerously radical, some of his nominees as Confederacy-loving loons, and his voucher plan as a menace to the future of public education. To put it bluntly, this is all deranged. You get the impression that the left has actually started believing its own direct-mail fund-raising letters…’’’
— driftglassRead more here…

Wednesday, 4 October 2017

“A ‘tosser’ is literally a man who is overly fond of masturbation. By extension in general usage, it denotes someone (usually male) who behaves in a selfish and inconsiderate manner. It is almost identical in meaning and usage to the word 'wanker' but is perhaps considered slightly less vulgar.
In Britain, tossers are most commonly observed while driving or while queueing for a drink at a crowded bar. The same tossers may later be found shouting and singing loudly in densely-populated areas late at night, and playing their music too loud when they get back to their poorly insulated apartment.”
— Simon Crump, commenting on the definition of “tosser” (Quora.com)Read more here…

“America will not survive this moment unchanged. Great powers often fall from within. Some future Edward Gibbon will write about this moment in lucid detail. Alas, we are living through it in real time. History will condemn Donald Trump's voters, supporters and enablers. But history will also not be kind to those who stood by mute, crippled from fear, who surrendered to learned helplessness or believed that Trump's America would be but a blip or interesting curiosity in the country's history. The American people's hands are now collectively stained, and the mark may be indelible.”
— Chauncey DeVega, SalonRead more here…

Thursday, 28 September 2017

"[...] Humans are currently emitting around 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Oxygen levels are falling as if carbon is being burned to create carbon dioxide.
Fossil carbon is building up in the atmosphere. (We know this because the two types of carbon have different chemical properties.)
Corals show that fossil carbon has recently risen sharply.
Another two observations show that CO2 is trapping more heat:
Satellites measure less heat escaping to space at the precise wavelengths which CO2 absorbs.
Surface measurements find this heat is returning to Earth to warm the surface.
The last four indicators show that the observed pattern of warming is consistent with what is predicted to occur during greenhouse warming:
An increased greenhouse effect would make nights warm faster than days, and this is what has been observed. If the warming is due to solar activity, then the upper atmosphere (the stratosphere) should warm along with the rest of the atmosphere. But if the warming is due to the greenhouse effect, the stratosphere should cool because of the heat being trapped in the lower atmosphere (the troposphere). Satellite measurements show that the stratosphere is cooling.
This combination of a warming troposphere and cooling stratosphere should cause the tropopause, which separates them, to rise. This has also been observed. It was predicted that the ionosphere would shrink, and it is indeed shrinking
Often one hears claims that the attribution of climate change is based on modeling, and that nobody can really know its causes. But here we have a series of empirical observations, all of which point to the conclusion that humans are causing the planet to warm."
— Skeptical ScienceRead more...

Friday, 2 June 2017

It’s time for the world to react… in a big way. All signatories to the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change should join forces in keeping all commercial airline flights that originate on American soil from entering their airspace — every plane flight leaves behind a massive carbon footprint. (see stats in 2nd article).

“Only future generations will be able to calculate the full consequences of President Trump’s incredibly shortsighted approach to climate change, since it is they who will suffer the rising seas and crippling droughts that scientists say are inevitable unless the world brings fossil fuel emissions to heel.
But this much is clear now: Mr. Trump’s policies — the latest of which was his decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change — have dismayed America’s allies, defied the wishes of much of the American business community he pretends to help, threatened America’s competitiveness as well as job growth in crucial industries and squandered what was left of America’s claim to leadership on an issue of global importance.”
— The Editorial Board, The New York TimesRead more here…

“For many people reading this, air travel is their most serious environmental sin. One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person. The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year; the average European, 10.

So if you take five long flights a year, they may well account for three-quarters of the emissions you create. 'For many people in New York City, who don’t drive much and live in apartments, this is probably going to be by far the largest part of their carbon footprint,' says Anja Kollmuss, a Zurich-based environmental consultant.

It is for me. And for people like Al Gore or Richard Branson who crisscross the world, often by private jet, proclaiming their devotion to the environment.

Though air travel emissions now account for only about 5 percent of warming, that fraction is projected to rise significantly, since the volume of air travel is increasing much faster than gains in flight fuel efficiency. (Also, emissions from most other sectors are falling.)”

Thursday, 23 February 2017

" [...] the first chapter in Donald Trump’s story, as he tells it today, expresses nothing like Bush’s gentle nostalgia or Obama’s curiosity. Instead, it is saturated with a sense of danger and a need for toughness: The world cannot be trusted.
Fred Trump made a fortune building, owning, and managing apartment complexes in Queens and Brooklyn. On weekends, he would occasionally take one or two of his children along to inspect buildings. 'He would drag me around with him while he collected small rents in tough sections of Brooklyn,' Donald recalls in Crippled America. 'It’s not fun being a landlord. You have to be tough.' On one such trip, Donald asked Fred why he always stood to the side of the tenant’s door after ringing the bell. 'Because sometimes they shoot right through the door,' his father replied. While Fred’s response may have been an exaggeration, it reflected his worldview. [...]"
— Dan P. McAdams, The AtlanticRead more...

Friday, 23 December 2016

"A state statute that goes into effect on Jan. 1 will no longer treat fights in schools or buses as a minor offense, regardless of a young person’s age or grade. Instead, School Resource Officers (SROs) and local law enforcement will now intervene by arresting and charging them with assault in the third degree — a Class E felony. That type of assault can result in four years of prison time, fines, or probation. Attempts or threats to cause harm will be treated as a Class A misdemeanor, which can lead to a year of prison time. If law enforcement or school officials consider the assaulted person a 'special victim,' a student can be charged with a Class D felony that comes with a maximum prison term of seven years."
— Carimah Townes, Think ProgressRead more...

"The white ringleader of a horrific sexual assault of a mentally disabled black teen will avoid jail time and escape classification as a sex offender after pleading guilty to a lesser charge, the Daily Kos reports.
John R.K. Howard plead guilty Friday to one felony count of injury to a child after leading two football teammates to help him carry out a a violent sexual attack on a black teammate with mental disabilities."
— Elizabeth Prezza, [Raw Story via] AlternetRead more...

Tuesday, 13 December 2016

This is the kind of fake news everyone should be aware of: Here's one I just concocted to show you how easy it is to be misled.

"In an exclusive interview, a source close the Transition Team of President-elect Donald Trump has revealed that the soon-to-be president and his advisors are in the early stages of a nation-wide “rebranding” program that will start with a makeover of the US flag.

Our anonymous source says that the new design is a reflection of President-elect Trump’s close ties to both the Russian Federation (The flag of Russia is a tri-color flag made up of three equal horizontal bars: white at the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom.) and the White Supremacist movement. Mr. Trump sees himself not only as deal maker, but a unifier: “Who else could bring together ex-KGB guys like Putin and the people who run the KKK? We made a deal — all I had to do was say, 'Stop it,' and the Klan people said, 'Sure, we'll stop with the anti-communist stuff..." In return, Trump has assured them that all of his hotels and restaurants will never serve the vodka/coffee liqueur cocktail known as a “Black Russian” ever again."